Blooooooooondie!!!!
Overall Album Score: 8.6 out of 10 The nicest thing about vintage Blondie is that even though it's many decades old, it still sounds as fresh as ever. That is true about Blondie's eponymous debut album as it is about the best of their later stuff even though these melodies might not be quite as notable. This album has the reputation for sparking the new wave movement, but the history of pop music is fuzzy in these matters especially considering the term "new wave" is so broad. Well, of course, this isn't the first "new wave" album, because you can at least trace the genre as far back as the early '70s with The Sparks. What Blondie did, however, is come up with the nicest way imaginable to streamline it. They weren't trying to be weird, pretentious or even that artistic --- they just wanted to make fresh new music! Also, this album was released in 1976, one year before Year Zero for new wave. I can't say for certain how much this album was directly responsible for the propogation of that genre, but it was right there at the beginning of a long line of new wave albums. Famous muscians like The Cars, Elvis Costello and The Talking Heads all came a bit later. As far as I'm concerned, dubbing this band the godfathers (and godmother) of new wave is justified. Despite all that, this album itself certainly didn't make waves in the pop culture. It wasn't a commerical success anywhere except modestly in England and (for some reason) less modestly in Australia. Listening to this album, it's difficult to imagine that it was once considered underground music in the United States! It's so clean and poppy! The one thing that new wave did for the world, and what Blondie does here, is put a new face on old school pop music. The glorious bands from the Motown era and British Invasion bands were passe by then, but people were undoubtedly starting to miss it because it was so fun and enjoyable. After all, the market was saturated with overblown progressive-rock albums as well as the then-burgeoning disco scene in 1976! Now that they had synthesizers that weren't available to them in the '60s, they could make some really unique music out of the old styles. And thus a new type of music was birthed! Hooray!! As examples, Blondie works on putting a new face on '60s pop with "X-Offender," do-wop with "In the Flesh," surf with "In the Sun," and Broadway jazz "A Shark in Jet's Clothing" --- and the list goes on! So, it's not like these guys had come out of the blue. Their aim was to revive these great old genres that the public kinda missed. The result was some fantastic, slick and fresh pop music! The whole point of this album is to be fun. It's loaded to the brim with brash attitude (thanks to our favorite female singer Deborah Harry), and the instrumentation usually sounds crisp and varied. The songwriting is usually quite good although it's pretty obvious these guys hadn't reached their potential. Yeah, you've all certainly heard Parallel Lines, and you know what I'm talking about. But I think we should all love this early Blondie album --- I've had this in my collection for a number of years, and I listen to it frequently! Overall album score: 8.6 out of 10 (There's nothing particularly amazing here on the composition standpoint, and even some of the instrumentation and the singing is a bit sloppy. BUT this is 100 percent fun, and it never pretended to be anything else.) Average Song Score: 8.7 (Snappy, slick and fun -- There's never a dull moment!) Album Tilt: 8.5 (It's remarkably consistent, but it seems cheap and sloppy at times.) Artist Tilt: 8.5 (They did a great job re-vitalizing old forms of music... This is an extremely enjoyable album!) Track Reviews X-Offender 9.5/10 I know exactly what the "X-Offender" is. It's everybody who spells "thanks" like "thanx." And that's probably what they were singing about, too! (OK, not really --- I think you know what the X really stands for --- it's "sex." The rebels!!) This is a bright, bouncy and poppy song with beautiful, slick sounds with a rapid and thoroughly danceable beat. This is unmistakably new wave when you compare it to later groups that would emerge like The Cars. The melody is catchy, and the development is diverse and excellent. Who's not to like smart music like this? Little Girl Lies 9/10 This isn't far behind the previous song as far as sheer enjoyability goes. The song is probably even more new-wave oriented than the previous track. (Notice the rapidly played organ that reminds me so much of the B-52s.) I love the sound and texture of this song, but it's not perfect --- it's a tad sloppy on the instrumental front. The bubble gum melody is catchy! In the Flesh 8/10 This retro doo-wop song doesn't do much to promote their new wave music --- but at least it has that same "return to basics" attitude that ushered in that movement in the first place. The melody is OK, but it's not that memorable. (Well I find it memorable because I've listened to this album three dozen times at least, but that's a different story.) It's enjoyable and well conceived, but it's quite a bit blander than the rest. Look Good in Blue 9/10 Here is a unique song. I would never have realized that it was a sped-up tango if that wasn't pointed out to me! The rhythm is bouncy thanks to that thump-thump-thump in that piano. This melody is probably one of the catchiest from the whole album. A few nice touches here and there constitute some spaced-out synthesizer noises peppered here and there, and a nice electric guitar solo. In the Sun 8/10 The distinctive new wave sound is here but it's not so enjoyable in this instance. Obviously, from the first moment in the song when Debbie Harry screams "surf's up!," this is simply a sped-up version of a surf song. The surface gloss is as nice as it has always been. The problem comes with the melody, which isn't memorable at all, and I hate to say that the arrangements aren't that compelling either. A Shark in Jets Clothing 8/10 This send up of The West Side Story is a fun, poppy and a worthy toe-tapper if there ever was one. The melody is fairly bland, though, and what's a pop song without such a catchy melody? Anyway the instrumentals keep this fresh sounding enough --- a few keyboard fills in particular are fun to hear. The end is interesting --- It's a little bit pompous (and there's your definitive proof that this isn't punk music) but it's much more appreciated than a fade-out. Man Overboard 9/10 They didn't write enough notes for the lyrics, so it sounds like Debbie's singing "Man of War." But anyway, this is one of the more spirited songs of the album, and it shows. The song has a lot of attitude! It's also slightly disco-ish (proof #234,323,493 that this isn't punk music), and that's what makes this so much fun. The melody is alright and the groove is OK, but the instrumentation is the shining star. That ending where they sort of fizzle everything out in a psychedelic sense was done really well. These guys were awesome. Rip Her to Shreds 9.5/10 This R&B send-up turns out to be one of the most infectious songs from the album! The tempo isn't any faster than a regular R&B tune, but the instrumentation surely is different. Using more of those slicked-up synthesizers, and they even change around the texture (including those rapidly played chords that's characteristic of the genre). This is extremely entertaining!! Rifle Range 9.5/10 Another absolutely stellar tune! This one uses a riff that sounds a bit like it's from a spaghetti western (for whatever irrational reason), and it's a catchy one. All of that is incorporated in Blondie's usual brand of slick pop music that always makes this so much fun to hear. This is arguably the slickest and most focused song of the whole lot. Kung Fu Girl 8.5/10 This song is a little bit of a mess, but it's so much fun and goofy that any shortcomings it might have are verily ignored! The opening riff might not be exciting or catching whatsoever, but I can't name too many other songs that would so randomly break out into that classical music interlude. Also, the energy is undeniable and fairly sweeping. The Attack of the Giant Ants 7.5/10 This track seems to work on giving a new face to Latin music. Not that it was a bad idea, but this is easily the least compelling work of the whole album. The riff isn't catchy whatsoever, and Debbie Harry just sings the same thing as the riff. They insert a bit of monster movie sound effects in the middle. It could be the most interesting aspect of this song! They sort of tumble through an odd sound collage at the very end that I don't very much feel like describing right now. BONUS TRACKS "Out on the Streets" is a '50s send-up, and it's not too bad. Even though it's a demo, I don't think the rest of the album had much "production" to it anyway. I like the melody although Harry's vocals sound like she's pretty bored with it. "The Thin Line" is another demo. I don't like the melody much at all. Refining the instrumentation might have made this into a decent song. Were these ever produced? ... I don't think they were. Was "Platinum Blonde" this supposed to be Deborah Harry's signature tune for their early live performances? Whether or not that's the case, this is pretty fun song. You'd think it'd be much more fun to see her sing this on video --- she seems to be sort of play-acting this based on what I hear from the audio! This is just another version of "X Offender." The vocals sound more tinny. Again, "In the Sun" is the same as the album version except the sound isn't as good. How did you like this review? I liked it!! Leave your comments here |
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